Exercise for Better Sleep Getting older doesn’t have to be associated with poor sleep quality. If you have trouble sleeping and exercise is not a part of your lifestyle, you may want to consider getting more physically active. As we celebrate National Sleep Awareness Week, March 13 through 19, now is a good time to explore why exercise can help you sleep better. Several studies have concluded that those who experience poor sleep are less active than those with healthy sleep cycles. According to a Sleep Foundation article, a poll revealed that roughly 76 to 83% of respondents who engaged in exercise activities reported very good or fairly good sleep quality. For those who did not exercise, this figure dropped to 56%. Interestingly, there is a bidirectional relationship between exercise and sleep. Exercise helps you sleep better, and better sleep gives you more energy to exercise. Why Does Exercise Improve Sleep? Research studies aren’t completely clear on why exercise helps people sleep better, but there are several contributing factors. Exercise releases endorphins, hormones that promote a sense of well-being, which helps to reduce stress and muscular tension. This allows the mind and body to relax into sleep. Muscle fatigue and the lowering of body temperature post-exercise also contribute to a more restful slumber.
By Mark Grevelding
Exercise Recommendations for Improved Sleep? Most studies recommend 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise in order to experience an impact on sleep quality. According to a John Hopkins Medicine article, moderate aerobic exercise increases the amount of slow-wave (deeper) sleep you get and equates the effects of aerobic exercise on sleep as similar to those of sleeping pills. However, the article indicates more research is needed to compare physical exercise to medical treatments for insomnia. Moderate aerobic exercise includes brisk walking, jogging, swimming, biking and some vigorous daily chores. The Cooling Factor Most studies recommend exercise in the morning or early afternoon to allow body temperature to decrease to normal levels. Water exercise is often touted for its sleep-inducing benefits because the cooler water temperature more effectively lowers body temperature, contributing to better sleep. The water’s resistance also fatigues muscles more efficiently, which can help combat insomnia. Mark Grevelding is the founder of PoolFit, a fitness app and website that includes over 115 water fitness & in-home workouts suitable for older adults.
“Heart of Gold” by Neil Young BY: RANDAL C. HILL The Beatles had 20. Elvis Presley had 18. Michael Jackson—with and without his singing brethren—had 17. Had what? The answer is hit singles. And not just any successful releases but Number One winners that crowned the weekly Billboard Hot 100 list. To most recording artists, earning such an achievement would be sublime. But Neil Young has never worried about having any of his 45s race up the sales charts. In fact, he was amazed—and not especially happy—when “Heart of Gold” soared to the top in the spring of 1972. Young was born in Toronto, Canada, in November 1945, and moved to Winnipeg to spend his high school years playing guitar in several rock bands. He dropped out before graduating and returned to Toronto, where he found work in local coffeehouses, singing folk and rock ‘n’ roll tunes in a quavering, melancholy voice. In time, he hooked up with a soon-to-fail rock band called the Mynah Birds. In the group were fellow guitarist Bruce Palmer and an African American bass player named James Johnson, Jr., who would achieve stardom later as Motown funk star Rick James. Young and Palmer headed to California in a 1953 Pontiac hearse. In Los Angeles, they fell in with two American musicians they had met in Canada: Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. Along with drummer Dewey Palmer, the quintet found fame, fortune and respect as the folk-rock outfit Buffalo Springfield. The name had come
from an old steam stroller they saw parked near their rented house. But each of the talented band members proved mulishly stubborn in their diverse outlooks about the group’s long-term musical direction. They eventually Image from Discogs disbanded and went their separate ways, to varying degrees of success. For a while, Neil contributed to the musical output of the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. As before, though, internal squabbles drove him away. He later signed as a solo act with Reprise Records, where he was granted artistic control. “Heart of Gold” was culled from Harvest, Neil’s fourth studio album. It was a disc that found the Canadian—once described as “the quintessential hippie-cowboy loner”—struggling to accept his frustrations concerning relationships. Young always cringed at the success of “Heart of Gold.” “This song put me in the middle of the road,” he once grumbled. “I’ve seen a few artists who’ve got hung up on the singles market when they’ve really been album people… If you’re wise, you stay with being what you really are.”
Lifestyles After 50 • March 2022 • 19
